The invention relates to a procedure for the production of granulated baby and infant food, such as infant food most analogously resembling mother's milk, adapted initial and sequel food, baby and infant pap with fruit and/or vegetables, s well as reduction and constitution food for convalescents on the basis of milk, milk products or other animal or vegetable proteins, vegetable and/or animal fats, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins. The foods are prepared ready by stirring in hot or cold water.
According to the prior art, baby and infant food, reduction and constitution food for convalescents are prepared by dry mixing the components or by wet mixing the components, homogenizing, possibly pasteurizing and spray drying.
The disadvantage of the known procedures of dry mixing is the demand for pulverized raw materials, i.e. they have to be subjected to energy-expensive vacuum, freeze, drum, or spary drying. This especially holds true to isolated and treated milk products, such as caseinate, fruit and vegetable products.
In the final preparation, these products poorly disperse in water. During handling the risk of disintegration is given because of the different specific weight of the components. Spray drying requires dissolving all the components, i.e. pulverized or cristalline components (semolina, sugar) have to be dissolved additionally which means a significant additional expenditure of energy. The high temperature of the drying air causes flavour losses in fruit and vegetable products. In milk products combined with reducing sugars the proteins may be damaged.
A great number of procedures is known, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,320,072, for the production of infant food most analogously resembling mother's milk, the so-called simulated mother's milk; they aim at approximating the composition of mother's milk by selecting, mixing and processing appropriate components.
In the patent specifications, the effect of mother's milk is explained by different factors. U.S. Pat. No. 3,320,072 relates to a procedure which aims at reducing the relatively high phosphate and calcium content of cow's milk, whey, and defatted milk. Electrodialysis of whey and defatted milk is realized by complicated and expensive techniques. CH Pat. No. 398 281 relates to a procedure for the production of a pulverized infant milk by processing cow's milk with the addition of a nitrogenous substance, iron compounds, and vitamins. The patent specification is based upon the face that for achieving the equivalency of mother's milk not only the absolute amounts of lactose, fat, nitrogenous compounds, and ash components in the products are of decisive importance, but also the distribution of the nitrogenous compounds to casein, serum proteins, and non-protein nitrogenous compounds, as well as especially the relative proportion between lactose and serum proteins, between lactose and ash components, and between lactose and fat.
It is known by experience that mother's milk has a distinct microecological effect in the infant intestinum, which is expressed in typical level ranges of parameters, such as putrefaction flora, oxidation reduction potential, pH, ammonia content, buffer capacity of faeces. These phenomena are attributed to the fact that an acid pH of faeces implies the microbial metabolism of a carbohydrate passing the ileocecal valve. This holds true only to the lactose of the mother's milk, which penetrates to the distale intestine segments because it partly escapes the resorption in the small intestine. The resorption rate depends on the rate of enzymatic dissociation of lactose. As beta-lactose is dissociated more slowly than alpha-lactose, the rate of lactose dissociation is influenced by the rate of the transformation of beta-lactose to alphalactose. This mutarotation is influenced by factors which are contained in mother's milk in smaller quantities than in cow's milk (phosphate, citrate, free amino acids, etc.), so that the dissociation of the lactose of mother's milk is retarded compared with the lactose of cow's milk.
Out of the numerous experiments to develop food products of aseptic effect analogous to mother's milk in the above described sense, only the procedures described in the economic patents DD Pat. No. 83 295 and DD Pat. No. 104 707 are a successful approach.
According to DD 83 295, an infant food most analogously resembling mother's milk, is produced by spraying vegetable oil to spray-dried while milk powder, in a conventional mixer, and subsequent mixing with beta-lactose.
According to DD Pat. No. 104 707, a simulated mother's milk is produced by adding milk protein precipitated in the isoelectric point to anion free cow's milk whey, subsequent mixing with vegetable oils, vitamins and minerals, and spray drying. The powder is mixed with pulverized lactose and wheat starch. DE Pat. No. 2818 645 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,236 relate to formulas and procedures for the production of infant food, especially for premature babies, wherein a certain content of main nutrients, essential components and trace components of milk component parts, vegetable and animal fats is set and the mixture subsequently is homogenized, pasteurized and spray-dried. The powder is subjected to dry mixing with glucose. The disadvantage of the known procedures consists in the high technical and technological expenditures to obtain fine, well soluble powders.
The screening and steaming agglomeration according to the prior art to improve solubility and dosing accuracy, causes a slight destruction of the agglomerates because of their low stability. During pneumatic handling and packing a high amount of powder (abrasion loss) is resulting. Infant food produced according to this procedure and characterized by a high fat content (more than 20%) of the dry matter becomes inhomogeneous after reconstitution to bottle food.
DE Pat. No. 2508 192 relates to a procedure for the production of a dry food powder, wherein a dry potato product is sprayed with different protein, carbohydrate and fat containing aqueous mixtures and dried, in a three-chamber fluidized bed. The disadvantage of this procedure is the impossibility of a strict adherence to the formula, especially of the vitamin content, which is a must in the production of infant food. The specific weight of the solid particles will be reduced after spraying with a solution or emulsion and drying, thus they will be carried from one chamber over the wall into the next chamber. If a certain portion of components is not or too late discharged from the chamber and subjected to spraying during the stay in the chamber, the composition of the product is changed and the formula has to be prohibited.